Electron exchange between dipole-bound anion and polar molecule and dipole-bound anions dimer formation

Abstract

We consider collision between a dipole-bound molecular anion and a neutral polar molecule and show that the excess electron can bind two neutral molecules into a dimer. Using a variational approach similar to the Heitler-London model of H+2 ion we obtain the energy terms of such a dimer. Their difference determines the cross-section of electron transfer from the anion to the neutral molecule in quasiclassical near-resonant Born-Oppenheimer approximation. We obtain for the cross-section an analytic expression containing the weak (logarythmic) factor depending on the molecular dipole moment, and collision velocity. Our analytic calculations are in a good accordance with the results of a recent experiment.